


Immortal Pride

by Rising_Phoenix



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Declarations Of Love, Established Relationship, Execution, Flashbacks, Gay Pride, Homophobic Language, Is it MCD when they die but come back?, Joe's poetic language, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:47:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25364098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rising_Phoenix/pseuds/Rising_Phoenix
Summary: Joe and Nicky being the gay heroes we need
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 40
Kudos: 435





	Immortal Pride

Nicky leaned against the railing of the square, long legs stretched out, one hand around his phone that he had just put into his pocket, and the other brushing his hair out of his face. His eyes were on the man a few steps away from him, who was animatedly talking to a street vendor selling ice cream. He smiled at the man who had been at his side for more days than he could count, and even after all this time, it would be easy to say that the days they had been apart were less than either of them had wanted to happen. Sometimes, their profession had them in different parts of the world, now that the world was smaller and every spot, no matter how remote, was reachable within a few hours or days. Still, everyone knowing them knew it was better to provide that he and Joe were in the same spot, knowing they would get restless, fidgety and unreliable in their job, knowing that they grounded each other, and one look, the certainty that the other was still there, made them a force to reckon with.

He tilted his head a little to the side, watching how Joe was still discussing something with the vendor, laughing and throwing his head back in the way he did it when he was truly relaxed. And indeed, this had been a good day. One of the few days when life was nothing but life, no reminder of who they were or what time had made of them.

Today, they were just two men strolling the streets of New York, at ease with themselves and with the world.

Today, they were just Joe and Nicky.

Nicky, who was wearing cut off, faded jeans that showed off his toned calves and hugged his perfect butt, who was wearing a simple white t-shirt as it looked from this perspective, but Joe knew that it said in glittery rainbow colors “Born this way” on the front, and a reverse worn baseball cap, equally rainbow-colored. Dark eyeliner completed an outfit that nobody would ever believe Joe had been wearing today. He considered making a compromising photo with his phone to prove to the others what they had looked like today, but then it was nobody’s business but theirs.

Pride, not only about his own identity, but also for the man who was buying ice cream, made him smile, remembering that it had not always been like this.

********** ********** **********

**_1744_ **

_“Joseph Bartlett and Nicholas Smith, you are accused of buggery and the court has found you guilty of a crime against the nature of men. Do you have any last words to say?”_

_Nicky turned his head to look at Joe, who was standing there, the noose already around his throat just like a noose was put around his own, the eyes stoically and filled with hate directed at the town’s sheriff red face. He saw the snarl on his lover’s lips, and he knew, as good as he knew himself, that Joe would have something to say._

_“A crime against the nature of men,” Joe repeated, voice hard and unforgiving. “What love could be against the nature of men? Could the love I feel for this man mean any harm to any of you? Do you suffer a cruel fate because I find his kisses to taste of warmth and home?”_

_A few people in the audience, wanting to see the spectacle of two men being hanged, gasped._

_“His kiss is as sweet as summer wine. As tender as the brush of a bird’s feather on my skin. There has never been a moment in my life when I did not know that I love this man with all my heart, there has never been a moment in my life when I knew that I want to sleep and wake up with none other than this man. This man,” Joe turned his head a little to look at Nicky, who had pressed his lips together. “This man is all I ever hoped to be allowed to call mine, and I thank God, Allah, whatever you want to call the force that guides us, every morning and every evening that he is the one I am allowed to hold in my arms at every night.” He smiled shortly at his lover and then directed his attention back at the sheriff. “You ask if I have any last words? I have last words. I love him,” he said and turned to look back at Nicky. “I love you.”_

_Nicky nodded._

_“I know you do, as do I. Always. For all eternity.”_

_Joe smiled gently, but then his face vanished from Nicky’s eyes when a hood was pulled over his head, obscuring his sight from the man he loved, never able to put his love in the same poetic words as the incurable romantic Joe was._

_He heard the town’s people shout insults, and they should not have hurt, but they did. Joe had been right. They had never done any harm, they only loved each other, and it had been a small boy who had asked his mother why the two men who were traveling through the small town and stopped only to change horses, had kissed like she kissed his father._

_Suddenly the floor was gone, the stool they had put him on pulled out from under his feet, and there was a hard pull around his neck. He felt how his bones cracked under the sudden change, a sharp pain that went up to his brain. He choked and gagged, all instincts alert even though there was a good chance that this was not the end for him, even if he now felt the life leaving his body and everything went black, the voices around him cheering at the death of two innocent men._

_It was seconds later that he came back, blinking under the hood, grateful they could not see him. He knew this would kill him again, that he again would find death by the noose until they cut them off as soon as they were certain he was dead. Nicky was aware that he had to pretend to stay dead, to pretend that he was not coming back like no living being was supposed to._

_He came back twice, having brought up all his strength to not move when he returned, until they cut his noose down and let his body fall to the hard ground. He had seen hanged men who had been hanging by the noose for days, sometimes until birds were feasting on them. He hoped they would just let them lay on the ground until the next day, but instead he felt himself hoisted up and then movement started. A carriage then. They had put him on a carriage. But there was nothing he could feel than the wooden planks under his body and he could not say if Joe was close, if they were taking his body to the same place as his, wherever the journey of his assumed dead body was taking him._

_It took minutes until he was pulled off the carriage and then thrown somewhere. He felt himself rolling a short way until he remained lying, praying that they would not bury him. Once he had been buried alive and it had taken days until he had dug himself out of the wet earth, an unpleasant memory for him. But no. They just had thrown them into a dump and were letting him there._

_He waited until he could be sure that they were gone and then pulled at the ropes that were tying his wrists together, and finally managed to pull them off, his skin bloody and torn, but not caring._

_Something was wrong._

_Something felt wrong._

_He pulled the hood off his head and looked around._

_“Joe?” He whispered into the dim evening light, trying to adjust his eyes, and then saw a second body lying there a few feet away, thrown down here like trash like himself._

_But he was not moving._

_There was no breathing, no movement, no reaction._

_“No,” Nicky whispered. “Nonononononono. Not like this, not like this.”_

_He crawled over to the man he knew was Joe and over him, sitting down on his chest, the beloved body so close, and then pulled the hood off the other man._

_There was no breath._

_There was nothing._

_Joe. It was not possible. He was too young. They had so much more time, it was not fair, it was not possible. Not like this. Not when Joe was a warrior who deserved to die honorably on the battlefield, having fought an enemy stronger than them, having shed his blood. One night, when lying in each other’s arms, they had promised each other they were going to go on the same day, since they had been made immortal on the same day. There was no life without Joe, and he was not ready. He was not ready to spend this life without him, he would not be able to survive without the other at his side, he would not survive like this, and he wanted to live. With him, for him._

_“No,” he whispered again, feeling tears rise up to his eyes and flowing freely down his cheeks. “Yusuf.”_

_That moment, Joe opened his eyes, wide and shocked, making a gagging sound and now Nicky saw that the noose was still around his neck, too tight, suffocating him again, and he pulled it off as fast as he could._

_Joe sat up, coughing and gagging, and then looked up at his lover through those long, black lashes._

_“You’re crying,” he said, sounding tired._

_Nicky hit Joe’s upper arm with his fist, choking out a helpless laugh, but still in tears._

_“I thought I lost you,” he whispered and leaned closer, a movement mirrored by Joe until their foreheads touched._

_“Not like this,” Joe said and then lifted his chin to meet Nicky’s lips into a gentle and intimate kiss, in which both knew was a love that neither of the men had killed them for who they loved would be ever able to experience._

********** ********** **********

They had met men and women like this numerous times.

There had been names for him and Joe. Buggers, faggots, sodomites, fudgepacker, pansy, bardash, greek. Many words that had been thrown at them to hurt and even if neither would ever admit it to anyone but each other, every single one did.

There had never been a name for those throwing those words against them. Because society always had taken it for granted that two men loving each other were those who were wrong, who were, as the sheriff back then had said, committed a crime against mankind.

Until suddenly there was a name for those who were truly wrong.

Homophobes.

It had felt so good when suddenly, after all these centuries of having to hide who they loved, no matter that wounds would heal and deaths were not permanent, the words had left scars on their souls. There had been hidden tears, sobs even, when the love they shared was seen as something inhuman, as something dirty and forbidden, something they had to be punished for. He could not count the nights in which he and Joe had held each other, no words needed to know what the other was feeling. They did not understand why they were like this, why they could not die, but they even understood less why nobody was able to let them live the lives they wanted to live. They only wanted a little peace for themselves. Nothing else. Nothing more.

Joe still was talking to the vendor, chatting about whatever, and from his body language, Nicky knew that his partner was at ease, relaxed, and excited, shifting from one foot to the other, talking with his hands. Then, Joe turned a little and looked over his shoulder, pointing with a hand towards him and smiled brightly, still talking, and the vendor nodded, smiling as well and continued to talk to the man who would until his last day rule his heart.

“Hey,” a voice to his left said, and Nicky was surprised that he had not heard the stranger approach him. He turned a little and saw a young man, younger than he and Nicky appeared, standing there, looking a little flushed and out of breath. “I’m sorry, can I stand here for a moment?” He asked, looking over his shoulder and Nicky followed his gaze, seeing a group of four other men standing at the next street corner, watching them.

“Of course,” Nicky said, trying a calm smile, but aware of the danger that emitted from the group over there. “Are they causing you problems?”

The young man bit his lower lip, unsure what to reply, but then nodded.

“The usual,” he said. “Calling me names and stuff. It’s not so bad, I mean, obviously I’m gay?”

He chuckled a little uneasy, and pointed to his black t-shirt that had a sequined GAY at the front, but the boy also was wearing makeup and some colorful stripes in his hair.

“It’s my first pride,” he continued. “I didn’t think they would follow me.”

Nicky nodded and still watched the four men.

“I’m Henry,” the young man said, his voice shaking a little. “I’m so sorry to bother you, but I thought I’d be an easier target if I was alone.”

Nicky smiled.

“You’re right about that, and you did right to come to talk to me,” he said. “I’m Nicolo. Nicky.”

Henry beamed, relieved that the stranger was not overly annoyed by him.

“Hi, Nicky,” he said with a pleasant smile, showing a hint of how pretty he was under the mask of fear. “You were at the pride parade too?”

“Yes, yes we were,” Nicky replied.

“We?”

Nicky pointed his chin towards his still busy other half, who had raised a questioning brow at the sight of the boy standing there with Nicky, but he relaxed when Nicky gave a subtle nod.

“That your boyfriend?” Henry asked, eyes filled with curiosity.

“More than that,” Nicky replied, smiling. “We’re together for a very long time.”

Henry nodded, still smiling.

“That’s so cool. Gives me hope to find someone myself one day.”

“You will.”

Henry shrugged.

“Maybe,” he said. “Did you like the parade? It was my first one, and it was so exciting. I went to see the Stonewall Inn in the morning, and oh my God, it felt like such a big thing.”

Nicky looked at the boy, remembering how big of a thing it had really been.

********** ********** **********

**_1969_ **

_Nicky was concentrating on the cards he was holding in his hand, trying his best poker face, but already knew that Andy would once again outsmart him and Booker and take the money that they had placed on the table with one of her bright grins. She would call them fools or whatever other words came to her mind, and would laugh at them, and they would laugh with her._

_Joe was out running errands, and the other two had engaged Nicky in a game of cards, knowing how fidgety he was when Nicky and he were separated even for a few hours. They were trying to distract him from the thought that something could happen to Joe, that he would find his last death while they were apart, without the chance to say goodbye to each other._

_Every few minutes, his eyes shifted to the door of the safe house, but still no sign of Joe._

_“He will be back,” Andy said finally, her voice soft, and taking his hand into hers._

_Nicky nodded._

_“I know,” he said. “I just...”_

_“You worry he doesn’t come back, I know,” she said. “He will be back in a bit, you’ll see.”_

_Again, Nicky nodded._

_“Another round?” Booker asked, shuffling the cards in his hands, and both Andy and Nicky gave a nod._

_It took another hour until the door of the safe house crashed open, and Joe ran in, letting the bags with the groceries he had gotten drop to the floor. He looked out of breath and his curls were sticking into every direction, having grown a little too long in the past weeks and Nicky had just given him this morning the promise to trim them. Carrots and tomatoes, a bag of rice and some sausages rolled over the floor, while Joe sprinted forward and came to a stop right in front of the table his teammates were sitting at. He stared at Nicky, mouth agape, and unable to say anything._

_“Joe?” Nicky asked, while Andy got up and went to the door, looking outside to check if anyone had followed Joe, of they were in danger, but there was nobody._

_“You will not believe it,” Joe panted. “This is...remember the bar we were in when we were in New York two years ago?”_

_Nicky nodded slowly._

_They had been to a bar that looked unremarkable from the outside, in Greenwich Village, a bar someone had recommended to them, and it had been a fun place where nobody looked when he and Joe had exchanged heated looks and gentle touches, nobody had cared when Joe had asked him to dance with him and they slow danced in the middle of a bar. Of course, they had been to other bars before, underground bars and clubs throughout the centuries, but something had made both of them at ease in this place._

_“The Stonewall Inn,” Nicky said. “Of course I remember. What is going on, Yusuf?”_

_Joe grinned._

_“There was a raid there a few days ago,” he said. “The usual, police raid, people arrested. But...,” he still stared with large eyes at Nicky. “They were fighting back, Nicky. They are fighting.”_

_It took a few seconds for Nicky to understand what his partner was saying._

_“Fighting?”_

_“They’ve been fighting back, they’re fighting for their right to be there, to be who they are. They are fighting for us, Nicolo, For people like us!”_

_He laughed. And after realizing what this could mean, that this could be the beginning of something more, Nicky joined him, while Andy and Booker looked at them like they had lost their heads._

_They both felt it._

_Something was about to change._

_Something would change._

********** ********** **********

“It was,” Nicky told Henry. “It was a big thing, it started the movement for people like us and it changed history.”

Henry nodded.

“It’s still so damn hard though,” the boy said. “I mean, I still get harassed and bullied every day.”

Nicky wanted to tell the boy that at least he was not killed for it by authorities, but he was aware that there were still men, that there were still countries that did just that.

“Hi,” Joe suddenly said and pressed a kiss to Nicky’s lips, partly claiming him as his own, partly playful and with a short grin. “This one’s all mine.”

Henry giggled.

“Not interested,” he laughed. “You’re cute together.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Joe said and handed Nicky a cone with ice cream. “Boring vanilla and amarena cherry for you. Hazelnut and chocolate for me.” Then he turned to look at the boy he did not know and handed him a third cone he was balancing in his hand. “I didn’t know what you like, so I got you vanilla and raspberry.”

Henry’s eyes widened.

“Wow,” he said. “You didn’t have to do that, I mean...”

But then he smiled, blue eyes as bright as his smile.

“I’m Henry,” he introduced himself.

“Joe,” the other replied, and Henry smiled while trying his ice. “What’s going on here?”

“Those men over there give Henry trouble for having been at the parade,” Nicky explained. “He looked for company before they get him alone.”

Joe nodded and checked the four strangers who had inched a little closer, warily. They were unarmed, just bullies who felt strong in the group. What he and Nicky had not missed was that they seemed to know Henry, moving differently than they would have if he had been a random stranger they had chosen to pick on.

“You know them?” Joe asked, licking his ice cream, moaning at the flavor on his tongue which made Nicky groan a little.

He winked at Nicky and then looked again at the strangers, while both noticed how Henry was shuffling a little.

“Yeah,” he then whispered, lowering the hand that was holding his ice cream. “The one in the varsity jacket is my brother. John. He’s been bullying me since I came out a few years ago. The one in the jeans jacket, that’s Theo. He’s...,” he hesitated, something that both did not miss. “He’s his best friend, and...”

“Your boyfriend,” Joe said, eyes still on the other young men who now were getting closer. “Your ice is melting. Eat.”

“He’s not my boyfr...why would you say that? He’s not...,” Henry said a little too quickly.

“Not out,” Joe finished. “Got it. He should not fight with someone who wants to hurt you, out or not out.”

Henry pressed his lips together and gave a nod.

“Ice,” Joe said, and pushed Henry’s hand holding the cone upwards, prompting the boy to continue eating. “That was expensive,” he chuckled. “Don’t let it go to waste.”

“Found some more fag friends?” The boy in the varsity jacket said when he and his friends had gotten closer.

“John,” Henry started. “Can’t you just let it be? I’m just having a nice evening, and this is important to me, okay?”

John, looking like a taller, more brutish version of his little brother, huffed in an annoyed tone that Joe did not like at all, and he felt how Nicky’s muscles grew tense next to him, ready to defend if necessary. Even if the jocks looked stronger than the couple, they both knew they would be able to take out all four before either of them realized what was happening.

“You’re disgusting,” John said, but someone else touched his arm and tried to pull him back.

Nicky was surprised that it was Theo, the one in the jeans jacket, who had reacted. Maybe he was smarter.

“Johnny,” he said. “You had your fun, let’s go back.”

“I have had fun when the little fairy here is eating my underpants for breakfast. Maybe I should give him a good spanking, or some samples of a real man’s dick so he knows what’s good for him.”

Henry made a step back, and Joe immediately sensed the same as Nicky. Both knew that Henry had suffered under his brother’s hands before. And they also realized how Theo made a step forward, moving subtly between his friend and the younger boy.

“Wouldn’t you like that, fairy?” John hissed into Henry’s direction, reaching out and trying to grab Henry’s arm, who followed his instinct and moved a little behind Joe.

“Leave me alone,” Henry whispered and his voice showed how scared he was, that he was fighting against tears.

“Leave him alone,” Theo said, making another movement towards Henry.

Joe licked again some of his ice cream and then handed the cone to Henry.

“Hold this,” he said and then moved so quickly that nobody but Nicky had seen him move at all.

Before John could react, Joe had hit his throat with a sharp jab, making him gasp for air, kicked his legs and made the taller and younger man fall to his knees, making his head level with his crotch.

Nicky grinned when Joe moved right in front of him.

“Why don’t you take a taste of what you have to offer, John,” Joe asked. “Maybe you need a real man’s dick yourself to know what’s good for you. But you know what? I would not want someone like you to touch me if my life depended on it. People like you are the reason why boys like your brother live in fear. Do you want to live in fear?” Joe leaned down and whispered into John’s ear: “You should live in fear of me, because I will find you, and I will gut you if I ever hear that your little brother has suffered under your behavior a single time more.”

John, still catching his breath, stared at the bearded stranger.

“Did you understand that?” Still, there was no reaction from John.

“He asked you a question,” Nicky said at his side. “Did you understand what he said?”

John stared at the two men, realizing that he stood no chance, especially since his friends had started to retreat the moment he had lost what had never been a battle. Only Theo was still standing close to him.

“I understood,” John said and then was pulled to his feet by Theo. “Let’s go, Teddy.”

Theo looked at the strangers, the couple that stood up for Henry like they had known him before, and then shook his head.

“Go alone,” he said, now looking at Henry. “I’m staying.”

John looked at his friend, not understanding in the slightest what was going on but then started to run away, scared of the threat the two strangers seemed to mean to him.

“Are you okay?” Theo asked gently and touched Henry’s arm.

The younger one nodded and smiled hesitantly.

“You should go with him,” he then said. “He won’t want to be your friend anymore if you stay with me.”

Theo’s smile was insecure, and his eyes shifted shortly to Joe and then to Nicky, who gave him a nod.

“I’d rather have you than a friend like that,” he then said. “I didn’t know he hurt you like that before. I don’t want someone like him in my life.”

Henry blinked a few times at him, and then an honest smile appeared on his face. He took Theo’s hand in his and the two boys just looked at each other.

Nicky pulled at the sleeve of Joe’s shirt and made him move with him a few steps away.

Standing next to each other, they watched how the boys smiled and started to talk, Henry even laughed a little, relaxing in the presence of the other.

“They remind me of us,” Joe said with a smile, leaning his shoulder against Nicky’s, who turned to look shortly at the love of his long life.

“You know it, too, don’t you?” Nicky asked, watching how Henry and Theo were talking to each other, wearily touching the other’s hand, still smiling.

Joe nodded slowly.

“I know,” he said. “Of course I do. I dreamed of them too. Of both of them.” He turned to look at his partner. “Should we tell them?”

Nicky shook his head no.

“Not yet,” he replied. “Let them find each other first. Let them have a bit of a normal life before they are meant to join us. We will find them when they are ready.”


End file.
